William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin Ireland. From the start Yeats had
artistic influences, due to the fact that his father Jack Butler Yeats was a
noted Irish painter. He had no formal education until he was eleven, at that
time he started at the Godolphin Grammar School in Hammer*censored*h England and
later he enrolled in Erasmus Smith High School in Dublin. Throughout his
schooling he was considered disappointing student, his studies were
inconsistent, he was prone to day dreaming, and poor at sports. In 1884 Yeats
found his way to the Metropolitan School for the Arts, here he met a poet by the
name of George Russell. Yeats and Russell sheared the same dreams, visions, and
the enthusiasm for them. Russell and Yeats soon founded the Dublin Hermetic
Society for the purpose of conducting magical experiments. They promoted their
idea that “whatever great poets had affirmed in there finest moments was the
nearest we could come to an authoritative religion and that their mythology and
their spirits of wind and water were but literal truth.” This sparked
Yeats’s interest in the study of the occult. After his experience in the
hermetic society he joined the Rosicrucians, Madam H.P. Blavavtsky’s
Theosophical Society, and MacGregors Mather’s Order of the Dawn. Yeats
consulted spiritualists frequently and engaged in the ritual of conjuring the
Irish Gods. The occult research Yeats made was apparent in his poetry. The
occult was a source of images to use in his poems, and evedence of this is in
all of his works. In1885 Yeats met John O’Leary an Irish Nationalist and
Fenian leader. O’Leary played a large role on getting Yeats’s his work first
published in The Dublin University Review and directing Yeats’s attention to
native Irish sources for inspiration. The influence of O’Leary caused Yeats to
take up the Irish writer’s cause. England was trying to destroy all Irish
literature in an attempt to anglicize Ireland through a ban on the Gaelic
language. O’Leary’s nationalism and opposition to violence impressed many
people including Yeats. These views helped shape political views that Yeats
would hold for the rest of his life. In 1889Yeats met Maude Gonne, a woman he
loved unrequitedly for the rest of his life. Yeats asked Gonne to marry him many
times but she always turned him down. Gonne was an Irish patriot and an
inspiration to Yeats. Yeats frequently accompanied here to political rallies
even though he usually disagreed with her extremist tactics. Their relationship
went through a lot including Gonne’s short-lived marrige to John McBride. Most
of Yeats’s poetry is addressed to her. Yeats associated her with Helen of
Troy, whose capriciousness led to the destruction of a civilization. In 1986
Yeats became friends with Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory, a nationalist
playwright. Together Yeats and Lady Gregory helped to found the Abbey Theater.
As the director and dramatist Yeats helped to turn it into a leading theatrical
company of the world and a center of the Irish Renaissance. Near the Turn of the
century Yeats fought to abandon his old style of writing, at this time his
writing became less mystical and symbolic and it became clearer. Yeats
eventually got married in 1917, at the age of 52. His wife was Georgie
Hyde-Lees, while on their honeymoon she discovered that she had mediumistic
abilities. Through automatic writing she could communicate with a visionary
realm. In Yeats’s later years he became more involved in politics. From 1922
– 1928 he was a senator for the Irish Free State. In 1923 Yeats received the
Nobel Prize for literature, and died on January 18 1939 in Roquebrune France.
Yeats was buried in Sligo Ireland. A Drunken Mans Praise of Sobriety Come swish
around my pretty punk And keep me dancing still That I may stay a sober man
Although I drank my fill. Sobriety is a jewel That I do much adore, And
therefore keep dancing Though drunkards lie and snore. O mind your feet, O mind
your feet Keep dancing like a wave, And under every dancer A dead man in his
grave. No ups no downs, my Pretty, A mermaid not a punk; A drunkard is a dead
man And all dead men are drunk. This is a lyrical poem, which Yeats wrote in
1938. The title sounds like it’s a poem about a recovering alcoholic, but it
seems that the person that Yeats is talking about is drunk. It also appears that
he is such an alcoholic that he is drinking to feel normal. The line “Sobriety
is a jewel” leads me to believe that sobriety is a goal. The use of the word
jewel leads me to believe that it is a goal that is hard to achieve. The
following line “That I do much adore;” makes me believe that he wants to
achieve his goal very badly. The repetitive talk of keeping him dancing could
have two meanings. The first one is he is talking to himself or another person
to keep him away from the bar and getting a drink. The other meaning could be
that he is talking to a drink and keeps just to continue dancing and avoid
passing out. As a whole the poem is a bout a man drunk off his ass realizing
that he has a problem. Saying that a drunk is dead makes me think that he
actually realizes how bad alcohol is, but that could just be the modern day
values of society that I know. The Old Men admiring Themselves in the Water I
herd the old, old men say. ‘Everything alters, And one by one we drop away.’
They had hands like claws, and knees Were twisted like old thorn-trees By the
waters. I herd the old, old men say, ‘All that’s beautiful drifts away Like
the waters.’ This poem was written some time between 1904 and 1910, at this
time Yeats would have been between 39 and 45 years old. When Yeats wrote this he
probably started to see changes in himself, and when he saw old men he realized
how close he was to becoming one of them himself. Because of the subject, I find
it strange that e used a lyrical style of writing. To a Squirrel at Kyle-na-no
Come play with me; Why should you run Through the shaking tree As though I’d a
gun To strike you dead? When all I would do Is scratch your head And let you go.
Yeats wrote this poem between 1919 and 1928. I think that this poem has more
meaning than just wanting to play with a squirrel. At the time it was written
there was some major industrialization going on, so that leads me to believe
that the squirrel represents all of nature, and he is trying to enjoy nature.
The fact that the squirrel runs away shows that nature knows of mans
destructiveness and it doesn’t trust man. What I think Yeats is trying to say
is that he really doesn’t agree with industrialization, but again he uses a
lyrical style.

BibliographyThe Poems of W.B. Yeats 1983 Encarta 99